Failure to launch - frozen golden target

[Spyre]

Hi there.

I just purchased Cliffs of Dover, and installed(downloaded) a fresh copy via steam.

When I attempt to launch the game, I am presented with the golden target sign with the plane in the middle, which does not disappear, but never gets further. I am forced to force close "launcher.exe" in windows task manager after waiting about 5 minutes with nothing happening.

I have read a bunch of posts regarding the launch crosshair crashing(disappearing after launching), but no posts regarding it just hanging at the picture.

I am running:
Cpu: i5 2500k @ 4.5ghz
Video: gtx560ti 1gb - latest nvidia drivers
Mem: 8gb 1600mhz
Windows 7 64bit fully updated

I attempted validating the game cache via steam, and reinstalling dotnet4, which have made no difference. I wanted to attach my dxdiag, but this site limits txt attachment sizes to something smaller than my dxdiag report.

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks,
M